<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[PCHR: Israeli assault on Gaza must be investigated by&nbsp;ICC]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div class="authors">Palestine Monitor</div>
<div class="palmon_date">6 April 2011</div>
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<p class="spip">“All political considerations must be put aside, and the rule of international law upheld.” -PCHR</p>
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<dt><img src="https://i0.wp.com/www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/IMG/jpg/image005-2.jpg" alt="JPG - 70.9 kb" width="610" height="360" /></dt>
<dt class="spip_doc_titre"><strong>White Phosphorus shells fall on a UN school converted into shelter, Jabalya/Gaza, January 2009 </strong></dt>
<dd class="spip_doc_descriptif">Picture: AP</dd>
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<p class="spip">The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) urges the  international community and the General Assembly to push the UN  Fact-Finding Mission’s Report on Operation Cast Lead, otherwise known as  the Goldstone Report, through to the Security Council so that an  effective judicial process can be undertaken by the International  Criminal Court.</p>
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<p class="spip">Less than a week after the Human  Rights Council recommended to the General Assembly that the allegations  of war crimes put forth in the Goldstone Report be investigated by the  International Criminal Court, Richard Goldstone—the leader of the UN’s  mission, published an editorial in the Washington Post that tempered the  reports findings.</p>
<p class="spip">In Goldstone’s editorial, published in the Washington  Post on 1 April, he redresses the report’s accusations that Israel  intentionally targeted civilians, by citing the findings of Israel’s  internal investigations. However, PCHR argues that the Israeli  investigative process is deeply flawed, and therefore does not  constitute a genuine investigation into allegations of war crimes that  is required by international law.</p>
<p class="spip">In September 2010, the <a class="spip_out" href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.50_en.pdf">UN Committee of Independent Experts</a> found that Israel had failed to open sufficient investigations into  those responsible for “Operation Cast Lead.” According to PCHR, “The  overwhelming majority of investigative procedures initiated by Israel  have been closed on reaching the IDF’s apparently preordained conclusion  that: ‘[t]hroughout the fighting in Gaza, the IDF operated in  accordance with international law.’”</p>
<p class="spip">There have been only three judicial indictments against  Israeli soldiers acting in “Operation Cast Lead,” all of which,  according to PCHR, are inadequate to the actual crimes committed. One  Israeli soldier was charged with theft of a credit card, receiving 7.5  months in jail and two soldiers were charged with using a child as a  human shield, receiving a mere three months in prison.</p>
<p class="spip">PCHR emphasizes that Goldstone’s individual opinion  should not undermine the other independent investigations that came to  similar conclusions as the UN Fact-Finding Mission did, including those  published by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Board of  Inquiry and the Fact-Finding Mission of the Arab League.</p>
<p class="spip">PCHR maintains that allegations related to Israel’s  “direct targeting of civilians, widespread and indiscriminate attacks,  choice of targets and methods of combat, and extensive destruction of  public and private infrastructure” must be investigated. PCHR states,  “None of these cases have been effectively addressed, and have not been  ‘reconsidered’ by Justice Goldstone.&#8221;</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1746">Source</a></p>
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<h3>Related</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Special Topic: <a href="http://wp.me/p16sn9-5hT">WHITE WASH WATCH | Goldstone&#8217;s Reconciderations on the Gaza Cast Lead Report</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=7355:pchr-highlight-key-issues-relating-to-report-of-un-fact-finding-mission-on-gaza-conflict-the-goldstone-report-&amp;catid=36:pchrpressreleases&amp;Itemid=194">PCHR’s statement here</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1739">Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi’s response to Goldstone’s editorial</a></strong></li>
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